Spoilers ahead…
One question we ask of most Rajinikanth movies, as we exit them, is this: Why aren’t they better? As a star, he occupies a universe of his own, so budgetary issues can’t be the problem – you could ask for the moon and get it. With him on board, there’s going to be little trouble getting the best supporting actors, the best technicians – heck, you can hire the wizards who choreograph the stunts for the Bond movies. And his films have become biennial events, if that – Lingaa marks his return to the screen four years after Enthiran (the animated Kochadaiiyaan doesn’t really count). Isn’t that enough time to write a rock-solid script that does his stature justice while also satisfying his fans? Why, then, do these outings come off less like movies than a hastily put-together dispensing mechanism for a Rajini fix? Take a puff during the opening weekend. The effects will last two years.
But consider, also, the director KS Ravikumar’s plight. It’s hard enough making a movie with any big star, with all the calculations that go into what the star’s on-screen character can be allowed to do. Imagine, then, accommodating all the must-haves of a Rajinikanth movie. You have to pay tribute to the past (here we have lyrics from Baasha, a snatch of the title song from Billa). You have to look forward to the future, which involves the inevitable speculation about a political career. (This film’s plot is about a dam that will irrigate the drought-stricken lands of Tamil Nadu’s farmers, and there’s a reference to a Supreme Court ruling. We’re told that Rajinikanth has behind him “makkal sakthi,” people’s power. We’re also told he can become governor, or end up in the Parliament.) You have to try and work in socially relevant issues as well. (This film, in one stretch, tackles the issue of caste.)
You have to think up punch dialogues that will outlive the movie. (It’s unlikely the ones here will last. Sample: “Vaazhkayile edhuvume easy ille. Muyarchi panna edhuvume kashtam ille.”) You have to accommodate the actor’s interest in spirituality, which means weaving in lines that refer to God. (Yes, fans, there’s apparently someone Rajinikanth himself considers a higher power.) You have to have scenes where the Rajinikanth character gets emotional and ends up making great sacrifices for the well-being of the other characters, and, alongside, you have to have scenes where the other characters burst into tears and remark how great the Rajinikanth character is. And you also need a heroine or two. (Two, in this case – Anushka Shetty and Sonakshi Sinha.) No, this isn’t about Rajinikanth’s age. After all, if an ageing Sean Connery could play Bond in Never Say Never Again, there’s no reason to get worked up about Rajinikanth romancing much-younger actresses. But there’s the pesky problem about his image, which will not let him strike any real sparks with these heroines – he has to keep them at an arm’s length. And this does the romantic tracks no favours.
With all this, it’s a small miracle that the person summoned to make a “Rajini movie” doesn’t turn chalk-white with fear and flee to a foreign country under an assumed name. But that cannot excuse the films. Lingaa is talky and overlong (nearly three hours), plagued with pacing issues, and – worse – it tells a story that lays no claims to our emotions. Rajinikanth plays two roles. In the present-day portions, he’s a thief, and a lot of time is wasted on this character’s doings (one of them a heist involving a tennis ball, balloons, and sticker pottu) till we get to a British-era flashback that’s this film’s reason for being. Here, Rajinikanth plays a munificent king who’s also a Cambridge-educated civil engineer (weren’t they all?) – he decides to build that dam.
Of course, there are people who don’t want that dam built, and the chief villain is a Brit whose name I never caught. That’s another problem. Rajinikanth’s films work best when he’s butting horns with a strong adversary – the deranged Neelambari in Padayappa, or Rajinikanth himself, playing a robotic terror in Enthiran. The villain here is unintentionally hilarious (just watch him wrap his tongue around words like “nayavanjagam”). With the preordained outcome, the stakes are negligible.
It’s easy to overlook the inaccuracies (though with a production this big, you’d think they’d do more research) – at a palace ball, we hear symphonic music when the musicians on stage are playing guitars and drums; in the flashback, set in 1939, we see repeated references to Josephs Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which wasn’t published until a decade later. But it’s harder to forgive the near-complete lack of entertainment, save for a late-in-the-day action sequence where Rajinikanth jumps on a motorbike and does what we pay to see Rajinikanth do. The theatre erupted at this point – out of sheer relief, it seemed to me, at finally having something worth cheering about.
Oh, there was one other scene that ushered in much excitement. It’s when we learn it’s the birthday of the Rajinikanth character in the flashback. A cake is wheeled out. People sing the birthday song. Fans watching Lingaa on its day of release, December 12 (Rajinikanth’s birthday), will enjoy being in the superstar’s vicinity as he cuts his birthday cake. But that’s just a temporary high. Next time, how about a film that leaves us with happy memories on other days as well?
KEY:
* Enthiran = see here
* lyrics from Baasha = see here
* the title song from Billa = see here
* “Vaazhkayile edhuvume easy ille. Muyarchi panna edhuvume kashtam ille.” = Nothing’s easy in life. But if you try, nothing’s difficult.
* Never Say Never Again = see here
* pottu = bindi; or this
* nayavanjagam = deceit; treachery
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2014 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Srikanth Govindan
December 12, 2014
I was expecting this as K S Ravikumar as a director is terrible, how much ever big the star is. Same fate was met by Dasavathaaram.
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Akhilan
December 12, 2014
BR Sir… After reading your hysterically funny review of ‘Anjaan’, I too have joined your ever-growing fan club…!! I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I laughed that much, which spurring from a piece of writing just makes it that much more remarkable…!! Since then, I literally went on omnibus-mode, and read all your movie reviews going back to around 2006 in a of couple days…!! (Don’t ask me where I got the time…!!) Thought, the release-date of a Thalaivar movie after four odd years would be the most opportune time to write my first post here.
With regards to Lingaa, you hit the nail on the head right at the outset of your review with the question – Why aren’t they better?? This not only applies to our very own Thalaivar’s recent forays in the movies, but you can also pool in the likes of SRK, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, and Vijay into that list as well. All the above are huge stars, superstars. With a wink of an eye, they can approve any project they desire. Yet, time after the time, these superstars tend to take their very status as ‘superstars’ for granted. They test the integrity of the audience, and believe regardless of what they churn out, we will almost in like a ritual-like manner, watch it. Though, in a country of superstar worship, where movie actors are treated as avatars of god, where die hard fans conduct ‘paal-abishegam’ for their beloved Thalaivar, this should come as no surprise. So unfortunately BR, it is an exercise in futility to ask for a script or story when any of these superstars’ movies are concerned, particularly nowadays. Just take movies such as Sivaji, Ready, Bodyguard, Jai Ho, Ra.One, Kick, Happy New Year, Bang Bang, Himmatwala, or the excruciatingly unbearable Action Jackson for instance. To be honest, I don’t know what to expect from these ‘superstars’ anymore when they unabashedly use words such as ‘wholesome entertainment’ or ‘family entertainer’ to describe their movies. Sure, there’s nothing wrong in being a ‘superstar’. After all, very few people in the movie industry have achieved that status. But once in a while, it would indeed be refreshing to see them think as ‘actors’, or we’d have to keep raising the same question – Why aren’t they better??
P.S. Keep up the outstanding work BR. Way to go…!!
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Ckssn
December 12, 2014
Perfect review.
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Shankar
December 12, 2014
Baddy, agree with a lot of what you say. The film was a lot longer than necessary. Also, the lack of good villains was spot on. The whole Brit crew was laughable. Where is Tom Alter when you need him? 🙂 I agree, the lack of an equal opposite brings the movie down a lot. Besides, the songs didn’t hit home either and that becomes problematic in a movie that has such huge expectations. My biggest point is that this what you get when you have a project manager helming the film….never been a fan of that guy.
That said, I have to say that Rajini does seem to defy his age for most parts of the film. I thought they did a good job of hiding his age.
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Madan
December 12, 2014
About the only Rajini film since Padayappa (which, other than Ramya Jayaram’s villainous turn, I didn’t like all that much either) that I even cared enough about to go watch was Endhiran. Which didn’t disappoint me too much and if it evoked old Rajini films, it was in a more unexpected light (the scientist vaguely reminded me of the absent minded professor from Dharmathin Thalaivan and evil Chitti of the splendid villains he used to play in the 70s). Going by the plot, it frankly doesn’t sound very appetising to me, nor did I like the trailers. Having endured Katthi not so long back, I don’t know if I want to hear about water, dams and all that in a masala wrapper all over again.
I find it hard to judge the buzz from Mumbai but is it kind of low key after the failure of Kochadaiyan?
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KayKay
December 12, 2014
“Why aren’t they better?” I’ve stated this before in other threads: Simply, because fans lap up these sub-standard fares, chewing on under-cooked baby food and declaring it caviar for the ages.
At times like these, I’m a tad more appreciative of the Kerala cine audience who have no qualms about , and frequently do, flip the Box-Office bird to superstars like Mammooty and Mohanlal when they off-load tripe at cinemas. I’m not saying crap doesn’t sell there, just that the marquee value of a bankable star doesn’t mean he gets a free pass no matter what he churns out.
The last Rajini movie I truly enjoyed was Baasha, a near-perfect melding of the Rajini Formula with a storyline that didn’t pander exclusively to his fans. With some hard-edged violence that seems to have all but disappeared from his films these days, along with the cigarettes and booze.
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Vathson
December 12, 2014
Shri BR, There are two kinds of people- talkers, doers. Rajinikanth speaks less but does more, on the other hand….. You have to understand (this is for all reviewers) that you are doing the most easiest job – commenting.
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Madan
December 12, 2014
Kay Kay: Nice match there. Baasha was the last really good one for me too (though, as I said before, I didn’t mind Endhiran). It too had its flaws and I find the so called signature music that has become iconic rather noisy and cringe worthy. Nevertheless, Rajini lived up to the title of the track Style Style Dhan; he just pulled it off with style. Unfortunately, that in itself became a formula for later films. Rajini has had signature punchlines in many of his films even before Baasha but after Baasha, the emphasis was almost entirely on what his punchline/absolutely ridiculous one liner would be and what hand gesture would he introduce.
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Aravindan
December 12, 2014
>>(just watch him wrap his tongue around words like “nayavanjagam”).>>
I laughed every. single. time! So glad you mentioned it.
Excellently, excellently, put together – definitely not the film – this piece 🙂
*SPOILERS*
My most favorite part of the film was.. the character of the flashback-villain’s wife was the.. don’t know what to say. We know characters are written for a purpose after all but we still look for some kind of an arc or a ‘travel’ as Kollywood likes to call it or some substance – but from the minute she got introduced and in every shot you could see it’s written all over the script in caps SHE WILL REVEAL THE TRUTH. You wait to see how bad it could get and when that scene unfolded it was so bad that it was *SO* good!
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brangan
December 12, 2014
Akhilan: once in a while, it would indeed be refreshing to see them think as ‘actors’
Actually, I don’t even want to see them as actors — at least, I don’t mind if they don’t do “serious” films that require “acting”. I’m happy to see films where stars do starry things — just do them right, like in the Bond films, is all I’m saying. Get a tight script. Get good dialogue writers. Get good people to do the action. Get good music. get good choreographers. Surely all this can’t be THAT difficult, given the money they have.
One of my favourite “star” films this year was VIP — at least the first half. Ticked off every box on the “this is what Dhanush fans would want” list — yet was so well-written, acted, staged…
Aravindan: My favourite character was the pregnant Englishwoman. LOL.
BTW, the scene where the villain begs his wife to stay is easily an instant classic 🙂
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Pranesh
December 12, 2014
I loved the first 45 minutes. Then, when they went to the flashback, my hatred for KS Ravikumar was reinforced. They could’ve spent a little more money on the British folks… I wished we had more Santhanam in the movie, that is a first for me.
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udhaysankar
December 12, 2014
Take thalaivar out of the movie and put mirchi siva in it…..,
you get an instant classic spoof movie. Never am I going to forgive ksr for this blatant betrayal. Being an thalaivar fan, I almost started crying after leaving the theatre hall. Oh, no thalaivar is 65 now and we need a better, bigger, stronger send-off, something that I can point to my kids in future(if possible) and proudly say “I watched this movie the first day….”. unlike these third rate spoof craps that never take themselves seriously………….. – A DIEHARD THALAIVA FAN..
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Harish S Ram
December 12, 2014
Did anyone notice the background in palace grounds where the guards walk two feet about-turn back walk two feet about-turn in endless loop. Real ROFL!!
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Shankar
December 13, 2014
Oh and the other thing that caught my eye was in the end credits…it listed 10-12 names including Ramesh Kanna under the title “Story Discussion”…that tells you how this khichdi came about! 🙂
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oneWithTheH
December 13, 2014
Not seen it yet. I am glad to read some critical stuff before I do actually watch it. I have sort of made this my process for masala movies that I want to watch but not sure what to expect. Really helps when your expectations are set really low 🙂
On KSR — why is he a celebrated film maker still? I don’t get that. He seems so out of tune(thanks Lingu!) with times. Even back in his heydays apart from his Kamal associations which I am sure has a lot of the latter’s influence, I don’t recall anything worth mentioning except for – Muthu which was fun. Padayappa was so-so! Padayappa infact became tolerable for me after repeat TV viewings.
From the moment I saw the trailer of Lingaa, it seemed like a mishmash of Muthu and Padayappa and I lost interest right there.
It seemed more like a hurriedly put together movie to bring Rajini back to the salable market after Kochadaiyaan(which infact wasn’t bad at all) dampened people’s/producer’s hopes about the aging star.
Somebody mentioned Endhiran — Chitti the villain — is easily Rajni’s best performance(in 14 years!) which I enjoyed after ‘Arunachalam’ the last Rajini movie I liked. While his nemesis in Padayappa, Neelambari hammed away to glory, Arunachalam had smart villains on the backdrop of a very bankable plot. I learnt later that it was flicked from somewhere. Still I think that’s his best movie post-Bashaa.
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Padhma
December 13, 2014
Rajinikanth’s films work best when he’s butting horns with a strong adversary
– You totally hit it on the head there. I heard in a recent interview that Satyaraj was approached by Shankar for playing the villain in Sivaji – how that would’ve ramped up the movie’s charm (Sivaji’s, I mean)! Also, I wish Rajni would start acting his age – he is the one person in the south who could totally pull off something similar to what Amitabh is doing. And, I am a die-hard fan myself – so, I don’t know that the fans wouldn’t accept it. Maybe if he did roles that are more suited to his age, they could get rid off these pointless romantic tracks and provide us more bang for the buck!
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Pranesh
December 13, 2014
The fans seemed to be happy before the movie though. Here’s a video before the second show from where I watched in San Jose.
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Alagappan
December 13, 2014
The motorbike-balloon action sequence was a joke. Not something a fan like me would pay to watch the Superstar do. Watching this film felt more like watching a Telugu movie starring Balakrishna.
His previous movies with Shankar had raised my expectation levels to such a high level, that this was such a disappointment.
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brangan
December 13, 2014
Pranesh: With the exception of “Lagaan” and a handful of other films, we always pick the WORST foreign actors (or maybe they’re badly directed). I mean, they make our heroines look like great thespians.
oneWithTheH: Padayappa infact became tolerable for me after repeat TV viewings.
I agree the film as a whole is dated, but some parts are still legendary, especially Ramya Krishnan’s lines. One of my favourites:
Soundarya: (alarmed) You’re wearing a red dress. Don’t go near the bull. You’ll make it mad.
Ramya: (imperiously) Maattukku pidicha colour-laam ennaala poda mudiyaadhu!
😀
Arunachalam, BTW, was “Brewster’s Millions”
Padhma: No, Amitabh is no longer a hero. He’s in the character actor space. I don’t think Rajini’s fans will allow him to go there…
Alagappan: I don’t get this hate for the final action sequence. I thought it was outrageous and fun in the Bond tradition. I mean, that was one time I perked up. Who wants something understated?
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Anuja
December 13, 2014
I can’t say that I disagree with BR here… Why can’t the makers of Superstar films put together something halfway decent that does not put the audience at a heightened risk of having their eyeballs dislodged from having been rolled around in furious frustration? As for the romantic tracks in Lingaa they are nauseating although mercifully we are spared the cringe-worthy sight of seeing him attempt to lighten his complexion or gorge on chillies before rushing off to the loo to disgorge them! A small mercy in a film that makes you wanna force the writers to jump off that damn dam!
That said it was heartening to see Rajni play the dignified and incorrigibly philanthropic Raja with so much grace and gravitas. I have always marvelled at his ability to infuse the cheesiest of lines with warmth and sincerity, making you root for him even when he tries your patience endlessly by taking up thankless roles ad infinitum. Only Superstar can pull off such emotional chou-chou without make you snort in derision and the great man is in fine form here. Lingaa, as is the case with nearly all his films is worth a watch solely for his sake. And its the reason a Lingaa trumps a VIP any day of the week!
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Padhma
December 13, 2014
BR, I agree Amitabh plays supporting characters. But, I am thinking more along the lines of Khakhee or Budda hoga tera baap. I could also add others like Baghban, bhootnath, cheeni kum etc. – except that these are not Rajni kind of movies. Why not make a regular, good old masala movie with an aged superman? Why does he have to be young? Lets say more like the later half of Annamalai or Padayappa – only do away with the first part where he is young (and save us all from the horrible romantic tracks!)
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Rakesh
December 13, 2014
I cannot fathom the reason why they roped in Rahman for this quickie considering his current penchant of providing tunes through skype from LA. There are just so many promising composers out there who would give up their right arm to compose for Rajinikanth. If GV Prakash was given a break for his previous quickie(extended guest appearance), no harm in testing the waters with a new composer for this one. Rahman seems to have composed the songs on auto-pilot mode, which is staggeringly disappointing.
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Madan
December 13, 2014
Cheeni Kum was above average but not a hit even in Bollywood. Doesn’t have much of a chance in the Tamil market. HOWEVER, if there’s one star who can make it work and has a loyal enough fanbase to give him that leeway, it is Rajnikanth. Barring Baba and Kochadaiyan, Rajni fans have always flocked to the theatres to see his films. Casting him as someone playing his age in a lead role is relatively low risk that way and worth trying.
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Sam
December 13, 2014
“I’m happy to see films where stars do starry things — just do them right, like in the Bond films, is all I’m saying. Get a tight script. Get good dialogue writers. Get good people to do the action. Get good music. get good choreographers. Surely all this can’t be THAT difficult, given the money they have.”
I agree with this, and Lingaa isn’t up to mark. The question is, who is the director for the job? I think the only Tamil director really capable of doing a satisfying Rajnikanth film is Shankar.
Apparently Rajini said he would love to work with Rajamouli. That would be something worthwhile!
The final action sequence was sloppy and had too much cg, but it was definitely the most entertaining part of the movie for me.
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Akhilan
December 13, 2014
@brangan
VIP was definitely one of my favorite ‘star’ movies this year as well. But, think about it this way. Dhanush is a ‘star’ no question, but he’s no ‘superstar’ yet. For a Dhanush film to work, you kind of need all the things you mentioned, and it all came together in VIP. But do you remember the debacle that was Naiyaandi…? Even take Suriya for instance. He is a big ‘star’ as well, but what was the faith of Anjaan…? The likes of Dhanush and Suriya et. al, aren’t in the same league of ‘super’ stardom as those I mentioned earlier, hence a good script, story, technicians, music, are all crucial elements for their respective movies to succeed. They can’t just show up on screen and expect to ring in the cash registers unlike our ‘superstars’ – .
BTW, which was the most recent movie you saw where our ‘superstars’ did their starry things right…? (Tamil or Hindi) Just Curious 🙂 I can’t really think of any from the top of my head…
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Krishna
December 14, 2014
no endorsement but the way karthik subbaraj (Pizza, Jigarthanda) sees it —
karthik subbaraj @karthiksubbaraj
#Lingaa is a 3hr emotional talk between thalaivar and a fan who was heart broken when he was ill.Others won’t get it.HE is back & We luv him
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KayKay
December 14, 2014
Just back from watching this. Needed to play the filial son and take my mum for a long-delayed movie outing and H’wood movies aren’t her cup of tea, so guess what was the biggest Tamil movie on offer?
Dear Lord, what an interminable borefest! Not since Baba has the pacing of a Rajini movie felt so….off.
A 3 hour movie that felt like 6. The entire dam building sequence felt as long as it would take to build an actual freaking dam! Didn’t the economic narration of earlier Rajini flicks merely require a song length to build monuments, amass millions and age a decade? And did the movie really need to be book-ended by a “present day” narrative, replete with an embarrasing heist sequence that seems to go on and on and on and…….
Youre review is spot on in the observation that for the type of clout Rajini commands, why does this movie seem put together like an ’80s Rama Narayanan quickie with all the narrative velocity of an Adoor Gopalakrishnan Arthouse feature?
Hacks like KSR make me appreciate directors like Shankar all the more, especially when the picturisation of the “Mona Gasolina” and “En Mannava” songs look like reheated leftovers of :Athiradi” and “Vaji Vaji Shivaji” respectively.
The villains are embarrasing and the heroines only ever capture your attention when they break into periodic Baywatch runs.
Rajini’s Lingaa= Flaccid.
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KayKay
December 14, 2014
Madan, I saw The Equalizer with Denzel Washington yesterday and it got me thinking, with a few tweaks for Indian audiences, this is the type of film Rajini should be making.
Playing a simple shelf-stocker at a hardware retailer, Denzel brings a zen-like calm to his quiet, dignified widower even when he witnesses a child prostitute get brutalized by a vicious Russian Mobster. But because this is DENZEL, we are primed to expect that he’ll soon unleash some Righteous Retribution on the Bad Guys.
I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it, but it’s one of those uber cool “Mass Moments” that’s tailor-made for a Rajini flick, and the director builds up to this moment expertly, like Suresh Krishna did in Baasha. It works because it’s Denzel, a charismatic and still formidable powerhouse at the Box-Office, whose decades-long career we’ve invested in, as fans. Like You Know Who.
But Rajini still wants to be-wig, powder puff and lens-filter his years away on screen when it’s his quiet nobility and dignity brought on by age that’s his most endearing quality.
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Usha Hariharan
December 14, 2014
BR, I was looking for your review before going to watch the movie. Your review is spot on ! This is exactly what I was thinking, when I walked out of the movie hall ( PVR, Juhu, Mumbai. FDFS with 25 people in the audience… I walked in and got my ticket…..an anti climax experience for a Rajini release).
Throughout the movie, I had this feeling of a non-Rajini starrer. No chemistry with the heroines…no larger than life role, not enough humour, oh….I have so many complaints…. But when I walked out, I was thinking….Surely, somebody like Rajini can command much more, a better script, much better research….
Lingaa disappoints !
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Madan
December 14, 2014
I did want to watch Equalizer and couldn’t. Not that I am a huge Denzel fan – afraid not – but still the concept just got me interested. Will surely catch it on TV. Yeah, I really don’t understand why Rajini has to be airbrushed so much for the cinema screens when he of all stars would be allowed the luxury of aging gracefully.
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Anuja
December 14, 2014
KayKay: Rajini’s Lingaa= Flaccid.
I laughed so hard at that, it was impossible to get mad at KayKay for ignoring the rules of fair combat and hitting below the belt. Too bad you were not at that meetup KayKay, and in the interest of hopefully meeting you someday, my advise is that you go into hiding till superstar fans stop gunning for you and shift their attention to KSR and ARR instead for their substantial contribution towards a limp Lingaa.
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hari
December 14, 2014
Or probably take up a movie like “The last stand” by Arnold. Full on Action.
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kaaviyathalagani
December 15, 2014
Imagine him in a role like Dirty Harry or Samuel Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
i think beyond character actor space, there is so much more room in him and his screen prescence to evoke BADASSERY for a lack of words, we need more of true RAJNI without limitations to society and dramatics – that “I’m beyond this crisis” feeling that he excels at. The kind in Guru Sishyan or the 2nd role in Dharmathin Thalaivan.
If he ever wants to get back there with the right kind of writing, as a fan, I dont see why wouldn’t let him get there. Its not like all we want to see is another Lingaa 🙂
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kaaviyathalagani
December 15, 2014
That kind of sarcastic brilliance can be utilised so much more now than evet thanks to his age and physical requirements. Imagine him playing even an older TYLER DURDEN. Seems hard to fathom but I dont see why not.
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Padhma
December 15, 2014
Kaykay, I am unable to “like” your comment (some tech glitch, I guess). SO, here is a super like!
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vivek
December 15, 2014
The place where I saw this, people cheered for Him when he broke into that first song out of nowhere. Gradually, it sunk in and by the time Nizhalgal Ravi came on as some big shot of Rayacottai, there were loud laughs.
I liked the range of films the script took inspiration from:
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Gradwolf
December 15, 2014
If we are thinking of such age appropriate massy films then Taken is the way to go. I’ve not watched The Equalizer but Taken had a very fresh feel for the whambam action movies of the 90s. The Die Hard series is stale but Rajini doing Taken with some of his style and punches would be brilliant.
I am glad there are people who think not so highly of Padayappa. The movie hasn’t aged well at all and that’s why really Shankar is the man’s man for you. Rajini taking on Rajini is really the ultimate concept and Endhiran for me is the best Rajini film since Baasha.
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non
December 15, 2014
The best scene was when this laborer falls from a tower and is presumed dead and while Rajni is discussing the merits of workplace safety, he pops up w/ a simple bandage all peppy w/ a spring in his step off to work again! i can’t get over that for some reason!
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KayKay
December 15, 2014
Anuja: That’s from having friends whose brains reside in the sewer (count me in that group hahaha!).
Thing is, in my own way, I’m a fan too. Like most people, there’s a part of my brain that’s always acknowledged the preposterousness of a Rajini movie, while the other parts just revel in the entertainment provided by his sheer charisma. And he’s the ONLY actor in Tamil from whom I’d tolerate scripts of perenially recycled themes, endless self-referencing and an almost criminal amount of ego-stroking.
Which is why the lack of “mass moments” in Lingaa is so surprising. You expect a Shankar to restrain these in favor of a more high-concept plot, but not a KSR. Lingaa needed a dash more punchlines, gestures and over-the-top moments to relieve the tedium.
Madan: Please do. You’re in for a treat.
Gradwolf: There’s practically a “cottage industry” that’s sprung up in Hollywood for “Middle Aged Action Roles” spurred by the Taken franchise. Kevin Costner in “3 Days To Kill”, Pierce Brosnan in the recent “November Man”, Keanu Reeves in “John Wick” and Denzel in “The Equalizer” and I haven’t even mentioned that Ode to Aging Testosterone that’s The Expendables series.I’m just amazed Kollywood hasn’t jumped on this yet. Besides Rajini, there’s Sathyaraj, Sarat Kumar, Arjun and (God Forbid) the Captain himself who are of suitable age…..or is this a case of Be Careful What You Wish For 🙂
Padhma: Thank you!
non: LOL!!! I had forgotten that scene till you mentioned it. And to think I excoriated the script in Shivaji which had a foreign educated millionaire asking a doctor what CPR was. After this travesty, all is forgiven 🙂 Rajini needs to put Shankar on his speed dial straight away.
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neena
December 15, 2014
I’m seriously surprised that Shankar as director gets so many up-votes here! I have intensely disliked his movies because they simply repackage very regressive Tamil cinema tropes (the scene where a young naked girl jumps in front of a truck because she was carried out of a fire by a male robot and then photographed by the press – maanam more important than uyir and that maanam is all protected only by clothes, apparently) in fancy cinematography, lots of money and technology and a whole lot of colour. “Get a tight script. Get good dialogue writers.” Neither of this was done in Sivaji or Enthiran. Except for a few moments in the two movies – the iconic ‘panninga thaan koottama varum’ bit and the last bit with mottai boss in Sivaji, the evil chitti sequences in Enthiran – I only saw a brilliant premise or great actors wasted.
Just a very far-fetched thought – is Rajini capable now of pulling off a Thillu Mullu? I mean, a lot of other things came together in that movie to make it what it was. But, Rajini playing the clown (which he continues to do in exaggerated comic relief bits in movies now), the romantic and sometimes, the assertive, were all a treat to watch. Although he would never have come to be exclaimed with ‘what a man!’ in those kinds of roles 😛
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brangan
December 15, 2014
Akhilan : BTW, which was the most recent movie you saw where our ‘superstars’ did their starry things right…? (Tamil or Hindi)
I, too, cannot recall. I enjoyed the first “Dabangg” quite a lot, but it was also written very well by Abhinav Kashyap. So it wasn’t just a star showing up in a vacuum.
vivek: Oh yeah, I was wondering why that heist scene looked so familiar 🙂
neena: But that’s always a Shankar trademark. Remember the “virginity test” in “Kaadhalan”? Or the scene in “Mudhalvan” where Manisha sees farmers offering grain to Arjun and she has nothing, so she removes her pallu and says all she has is her “maanam” and she’s offering it to him… And the creepiest scene in “Endhiran” where Aishwarya tries to “soodethify” some random drunk…
But even as a filmmaker, he’s not very good. I’ve always wondered why the cinematography in his films is so meh. It’s all glossy and stuff, but there’s nothing interesting in a cinematographic sense, like a lighting scheme that’s followed through or a texture to the light. And the screenwriting is like a bunch of “high concept” scenes string through with random filler.
His films work on the big screen because of the bling but see them on TV and the holes really show.
And yeah, I agree with you on “Enthiran”… the Evil Chitti scenes apart, the film was meh.
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Ram Murali
December 15, 2014
Just to jog the memory of the Kamal fans here – remember the climax of Aalavandhaan? It had not one but two Kamals flying and landing on the air balloon! KSR loves to use crappy not so special FX to defy gravity…remember the trident in the climax of Padayappa? To think that Rajni did that in addition to escaping from the bullets of a machine gun from 100 feet…yabba…moolaiya kayati vekka sonnaa paravaille…adhukkaage…adhukkaage…? I guess the fans are saying, “Thalaivaa…nee aadu…idhu un veedu!” (a la Kamal in “Indian”)
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neena
December 15, 2014
@brangan: good 🙂 since I don’t really know much about cinematographic or the technical aspects of film making, I didn’t comment on them. But, now, I can argue that it is not only Shankar’s plot and writing that are crass but also his craft…
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Ravi K
December 15, 2014
Ram Murali, Aalavandhaan/Abhay was directed by Suresh Krishna.
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Kothavaranga
December 16, 2014
Good review @BR. Only issue is that there is little to no intersection of binge (and repeat) watchers of Rajni films who make his movies rule the Box Office and the people who post here – two different populations.
Not sure if there is a plot and a director who can direct today’s Rajni with such a plot given all the constraints listed by others above (btw, I am not defending KSR or Shankar).
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Meenu
December 16, 2014
non, KayKAy – lol
BR – good review, but any reason why you didn’t talk about the music in your review – album/bg score?
anuja / rakesh – good you pointed out ARR’s music specifically in your posts. In all the ruckus about the movie review itself, ARR seems to be getting less of the brickbats than he rightly deserves. Even an average rating for this album is too much in my opinion, but background score in the film itself was mediocre too, no great shakes.
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KayKay
December 16, 2014
neena: See, I’m by no means extolling Shankar’s virtue as a GREAT film maker per se, merely doing an “apple to apple” comparison between him as a mass masala maker against another like KSR.
Yes, make no mistake, scratch the surface of their exorbitant budgets, and a Shankar movie essentially plies the same tropes as any other potboiler. Where he’s a notch above hackmeisters like KSR, Hari and yes even the cosmically-overrated Murugadass is in his ability to tweak the formula just enough to set his movies a tad apart. That and the glosy sheen a high budget usually affords. And by that I mean his movies as a WHOLE, all those specific scenes you and B mentioned, make me cringe in embarrasment as well.
That twist in Indian’s climax that set Father Against Son, a protagonist whose biggest enemy is his own multiple personalities (always felt Anniyan was terribly underrated) and giving Rajini one of his most low-key intro scenes EVER in Enthiran, the twist being of course that the “mass moments” come later courtesy of the Robot- none of these are groundbreaking in any way, but familiar genre material tweaked ever so slightly to make it seem a little fresh.
For me, for a Rajini flick especially, you either try some of the above tweaks while still delivering what the fans clamor for, or you go the “Full Mass” route.
The script for Lingaa did neither, resulting in a strangely unsatisfying hybrid
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Ram Murali
December 16, 2014
Ravi K, yes I know…forgot to put in a para separator without which my comment suggests that ksr directed alavandhaan
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neena
December 16, 2014
@KayKay: the problem with Shankar is that I find his scripts being even worse than the average masala-film in terms of the regressive concepts they put forth. Let’s take Padayappa and Sivaji for comparison. Padayappa had the usual aspects of amma-sentiment, taming the shrew, the docile girl being the good one, restoring family honour etc.Sivaji had most of these plus some more – how does the hero prove his love for the heroine? by buying her a whole lot of clothes and cosmetics at her house and showing it to her with a creepy smile. Stalking was updated to a house-visit and survey. Let’s not even get into the skin colour stuff with Rajini as well as Angavai-Sangavai.
Unfortunately Shankar films get a wider audience because of the kind of gimmicks you mentioned and the huge budgets he works with. That’s what makes them even more problematic. With the internet for aid, a director can hardly be praised for coming up with the idea of multiple-personalities – Sidney Sheldon, Fight Club etc. Chandramukhi, in fact, although remade from Manichithrathaazhu, had a nice twist on the split-personality theme. Father-son opposing each other for a cause has been a common climax technique since the MGR-Sivaji times. All the causes his heroes espouse are of ‘poor well-to-do citizens ruined by having to pay a bribe to the evil politician’ variety. Nothing new about that. The last bit in Anniyan where a lazy guy is killed because you know, the reason for poverty is only that people are lazy. Yeah, the cringe-worthy moments are not just in relation to the way women are treated in his movies.
So, all I see in Shankar films again is all the terribly tiring tropes of Tamil cinema, global masala-dom and some more appalling stuff wrapped in a supposedly fresh or modern package. The movies are badly written, unbelievably long and the dialogues are unexceptional. So, I can’t really place Shankar a notch above KSR or other mass film makers.
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Dev
December 16, 2014
If somebody remade The Departed here, would it not be a delight to watch Rajinikanth playing Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie?
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bart
December 16, 2014
Yet to see Lingaa. Shankar hasn’t brought out enough thalaivar moments in his two chances. Actually Padayappa was better in that aspect. Chandramukhi was just about fine.. Of the masala movies from the recent past, Ayan was pretty well-woven. Forgiving Maatran, k v Anand can be tried for presenting a new thalaivar (Ko was fine too). Else the new age directors should be tried for a new flavour – nalan kumarasamy or karthik subbaraj? Would be fun to see what they can do. Last but not the least – the director on thalaivar’s wish list, Rajamouli should take the next chance.
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Pranesh
December 16, 2014
@Kothavaranga: I am one such binge watcher. Even I find Lingaa difficult to defend. I can accept anything, except for this ‘let-us-make-any-nonsense-the-people-will-be-ok’ attitude. The film was clearly half done in many parts, and any competent director would’ve cut out some of the flashback portions. I liked parts of it (unlike many people here), but the flashback portions were really really boring. And after Kaaviyathalaivan and I, this was the law-of-averages album for Rahman, I guess.
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Rahini David
December 17, 2014
neena: I agree with all the problem parts of Shankar movies but I have to disagree with “the problem with Shankar is that I find his scripts being even worse than the average masala-film in terms of the regressive concepts they put forth.” What average masala film are we talking about here? Let us just a few Rajini movies
Kai Kodukkum Kai – The wikipedia entry says “Revathi plays the role of a blind girl who is raped by the villain, and Rajini her husband forgives her for that and they continue to live together”. Nuff said.
Thambiku Entha Ooru – Breaking into a woman’s house and kissing is a punishment. It teaches her a lesson.
Maaveeran – She whips him. So he whips her. So she kisses him and asks for a kiss back. (That is how I remember this movie) But then again BSDM exists and apparently there is a market for it.
Guru Sishyan – Rajini commands Prabhu to romance and seduce Sita so that they can later bully Sita’s dad. So Sita can fall in love with Prabhu but can’t fall out of love after she realises that he romanced her for manipulative reasons? She doesn’t even get offended. Is romance a cul-de-sac thing for women?
Kodi Parakuthu – Isn’t this the movie in which Rajini bullies Amala to lick ice-cream off him? I can’t think of a strong enough word to discribe how I felt seeing that movie
Annamalai – “You saw me naked. You will have to marry me”
Mannan – Slapping to teach a lesson. And the movie he gets to say “Mothathula Pombala Pombalaya Irukanum”
Yejaman – Rajini and Napolean fight over who gets to have Meena. Nobody asks her who she is interested in. This movie also had Aishwarya claiming to have slept Rajini just to say “The man can fuck”. It is of supreme importance in this movie.
Valli – Rajini attempted a “why kill yourself instead of killing the rapist”, but the movie comes across badly as it fails to distinguish between Rape and just plain old premarital sex.
Veera – Rajini is deeply in love with Meena and so plans to drop a goldfish into her blouse. He plans it out meticulously with a bunch of his friends
Padayappa – Sitara is in love with Nasser and will remain in love with him even inspite of the fact that he is a dowry demanding what-not. Apparently falling out of love is just not done by women in tamil cinema. It is almost implied that it is not even possible
And these movies provide the template for future Rajini-wannabes. I am not defending Shankar here. But he is not the worst one out there. That is unfair.
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hari
December 18, 2014
Rahini bravo.
The ilaya thalapathy and others follow the same template as well.
Pombhala pombhalaya irukkanum aana kanavu scenla enna venam pannalam eppadi venam pannalam ennatha venam pottukkalam
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anandkumarrs
December 18, 2014
Thought the review was quite mild. But agree with most of you have said. Rajini’s “Riches to Rags to Riches” template needs a break. While on this, pls read my post after watching Lingaa. “Can Rajini???” – http://wp.me/p1dZc2-np
Feedback most welcome.
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neena
December 18, 2014
Rahini: (takes a bow!) yeah, that sentence was not thought through. It is the legitimacy Shankar gets as some sort of new age or modern filmmaker that galls me, when there is absolutely nothing modern in his movies. Also, it is easy to see why a bunch of men planning to drop a goldfish into the heroine’s blouse is revolting; whereas the insidiousness in having the heroine fall in love with the hero because he bought stuff in preparation for her imminent arrival to his house is less easy to spot and so gets past us and probably into our sub-conscious. I mention this scene as a problem to people and the response I get is ‘oh, you are just reading too much into it’. So, I’ll revise my statement to ‘Shankar is no better than the average masala filmmaker’, yet he gets away with being respected more because of his (this is a word that came from the experience of watching Interstellar yesterday) quantum farts.
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sanjay2706
December 18, 2014
Great comments, specially the one by Rahini on MCP’s of Tamil cinema.
Has anyone noticed the male chauvinism in Santhanam’s comedy?
“Ponunga la sarake adikuthu, sight adika koodatha” was one of his dialogues in Linga.
Most of his comedy revolves around ridiculing girls and moral policing them.
I am not gonna talk about Linga here as it is one step backward for Tamil cinema which was making good progress. 😀
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KayKay
December 19, 2014
Rahini David: Loved your post! Given that I’ve watched pretty much all the movies in your list, it’s eye-opening just how regressive they are. I still cringe at the ending of Mannan, where Vijayashanti’s over-achieving CEO gets demoted to housefrau, packing her husband’s lunch!
neena: As I said, you make some good points that Shankar essentially peddles the same shit, albeit with slicker production values.
It’s just that for me (we’re getting into extermely subjective territory here), when Shankar gets his act together, his movies exhibit a good balance of pace and entertainment (e.g, after the cringe-inducing and terminally boring 1st halves of Shivaji and Enthiran; Anniyan and Indian on the other hand was well paced for me) that I don’t get with other directors (Dharani with Dhill, Dhool and Gilli comes close).
A point I’d like to re-iterate, is that my comparison is with Shankar and OTHER Tamil Film Makers. When you open it up to include Hollywood films, then quite naturally, the flaws in Indian movies become magnified severalfold. Of course multiple/split personalities have been handled far more frequently and better in movies like Psycho & Primal Fear in the psychological thriller genre, given a comedic twist in Jim Carrey’s Me, Myself and Irene and even addressed in Gollum’s conversations with himself in the Rings trilogy, to name just a few examples.
I just found it a little refreshing in the way it was handled in Anniyan as the traditional way to address this dichotomy in Tamil movies is via a “1 hero, 1 villain” double act .
There have been father-son conflicts in Tamil movies, but I haven’t seen one where the father’s almost pathological adherence to a code causes him to hunt his son down-Terminator-style to kill him for violating that code (Indian). Sure, Thanga Pathakkam comes to mind, but there, the son was established as an asshole pretty early on (not surprising,as he was played by Srikanth) whereas in Indian, the traditional “hero” role of the younger Kamal was subverted in the last hour, turning him into the villain.
As I said, it’s the little tweaks like that and their treatment that I dig in Shankar’s movies.
How much more interesting would Lingaa have been had the “younger” Rajini been made out to be a genuine wastrel who’s cold, calculating and opportunistic unlike his idealisticand noble grandfather? But I guess that’s a pipe dream for Rajini fans these days.
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Filistine
December 19, 2014
Rahini – Excellent examples. I have always wondered about 2 things:
1. Why do women patronize (matronize?) such blatantly misogynistic films?
2. Why do (leading!) actresses agree to act in such films where they (or the characters they play) are routinely harassed and worse?
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neena
December 19, 2014
@KayKay: Yeah, I guess it is subjective whether those tweaks do set Shankar apart and whether they outweigh the other problems with his movies. I wasn’t comparing him to Hollywood, I was merely pointing out that the Split Personality storyline is easily available to anyone reading even just Sidney Sheldon.
With Indian, by the time, the father-son face-off comes about, I had had enough and just wanted the film to be over! But, right from first, I thought it was clearly set up what Senapathy’s standing was and he wasn’t one to compromise on his principles because of paternal love (which was proved with his daughter’s case as well). There never was going to be a moral question for him, never really any occasion for internal conflict or turmoil. So, it wasn’t really intriguing to me. There was potential for some subversion with the Manisha Koirala character (“vaayilla praanikku ethaavathu onnunnale thaanga maatta nee”). Well, to expect complexity in the female lead is just too much, I guess!
However, to get back to the discussion of whether Shankar is the best director for Rajini, he certainly is ideal for the formula. But, I can’t help but feel wistful about what Rajini could have been.
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Rahini David
December 19, 2014
Hari, KayKay and others: Thank you 🙂
Neena: I agree that covert sexism proves problematic than overt ones. But come on, the Shivaji scenario was far from subtle. It was blatant materialism. It is something I’d expect a megalomaniac villain to do. Not the hero. Which often makes me wonder if the people who write these stories and screenplays ever get proper second opinion at all.
Sanjay: Yes, it does appear that sexism in comedy is one the rise too. But that doesn’t surprise me in the least. If heroes do it can comedians be far behind? And more importantly, have you heard the claps he receives for those lines? If there is demand, there will be supply. Right?
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vijay
December 19, 2014
Shankar is a notch above the KS Sorikumars and Haris because he could also make something like Boys coming on the heels of Mudhalvan, leave alone attempt something like Endhiran. People forget that movie when they cite his filmography. It was one-off but refreshingly irreverent, funny in parts and fresh. Kind of like American Pie meets Rock on. The coming-of-age genre itself is something that is alien to Tamil cinema. I loved it for the fact it brought out the hypocrisy of our Tamil media some of whom refused to even review the film(Vikatan, I think which just said Chee thoo! or something like that). The late Sujatha who wrote the dialogue had said that his wife had walked out few mins into the film’s preview show, disgusted. A Shankar film eliciting such responses is a rarity. The film didn’t do well and he was back to his vigilante themes.
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Padhma
December 20, 2014
Exactly Rahini! It is all a supply – demand equation. In response to what Filistine had mentioned, actresses still agree to do such stuff because it pays, I guess!
I read long ago that Shruthi Hassan would play only strong female leads and if the story did not warrant her role, she wouldn’t just play eye candy…but, I am not so sure that she holds on to that word anymore.
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Ravi K
December 20, 2014
Lingaa somehow managed to feel rushed and interminable simultaneously. The screenplay felt slapped together, but it also dragged on and on. I can almost forgive misogyny, plot holes, etc. if the film was at least entertaining. But the film committed what, to me, is the worst sin a film like this can commit, which was that it was BORING. The flashback dragged on and on and on. I was sick of hearing about that damn dam, and how great Lingeswara was, the scene of him calling on everyone to forget caste, him and the British guy verbally sparring, yadda, yadda, yadda. The train fight scene was the one sign of life in the entire movie. I thought that was pretty well done.
At one point I couldn’t help laughing at how awful the British actors were. Just dreadful. The sets were awful, the acting was awful, the dialogue was awful, the hair and costumes were awful. Alagappan nailed it when he said this felt like a Balakrishna film. But without the fun of some of Balakrishna’s more insane fight scenes.
WRT Shankar, he uses high-concept (for Indian films) plot ideas with above-average action scenes and concepts (the ending of Enthiran was truly amazing), and, of course, he and ARR are one of the best current director-composer teams. Otherwise his films have the same undercooked female characters and regressive values as any other Tamil film.
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Firsttimecommenter
December 20, 2014
Sophistication has never been Sharkar’s forte… more so in the way he depicts the love angle … so no major expectations from him … But a filmmaker like Vasanth has done got it worse … In his movies the lady who ends up with the hero is always a a virgin, even if she was married before .. meena in Rhythm becomes a widow even before spending a night with ramesh arvind . But not the case with Arjun and Jo !! And same with Padmapriya in Satham Podathey .. The heroines previous marriage if any never consummated !
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neena
December 22, 2014
@Rahini: Well, yeah, to you and me, it seems blatant. But, evidently, to many others, it wasn’t. By the way, I wasn’t just referring to the materialism in that scene, but also the sexism. Woo a woman by presuming she will come live with you and your parents, buy her silk sarees, cosmetics, pre-natal/post-natal care products and baby clothes, thereby further presuming she wants to have kids, with you. Just Brilliant!
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Kasi
April 22, 2015
The same people who are making fun of the British-Tamil accent should be equally ok with the Brits making fun of the Indian accent in speaking English.
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